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A question I received from my student: You say that one should treat one’s friend in the group as a child, with love and without judgment. We have to rise to a higher level of understanding and see that the most important thing is to treat our friends by the principle of “love your friend as yourself.”

But does this mean that we have to ignore insults from our “friends” and refrain from reproaching them even when their actions cause moral and physical harm to us? Every time this happens to me, I want to resolve the situation and I feel as if that person is not my friend. Or, in cases like this, should I just put a distance between myself and that person in order to avoid the negative feelings, even though we both study Kabbalah?

My Answer: Rabash wrote that if you sincerely attempted to resolve the situation with that person, and your attempts failed, then you should leave him alone and act as if you don’t notice him. You have to wait for that person to mature, and when he does, he will become your friend. Keeping this attitude should help you!

In the News (from BBC News): “There is a strongly felt need for a reform of the United Nations Organisation, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth,” the pope wrote in the third encyclical of his papacy… “To manage the global economy, to revive economies hit by the crisis, to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result … there is urgent need of a true world political authority,” he wrote… It “would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity [and] to seek to establish the common good,” … “Furthermore, such an authority would need to be universally recognised and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights,” said the letter.

My Comment: I agree with this idea, as long as it isn’t mixed up with religion and the religious understanding of moral principles, mercy and the social good. However, the only way to implement it is to change human nature from egoism to bestowal, and this can only be done using the method of Kabbalah.

A question I received: I don’t understand you when you say there’s a crisis. In Detroit, for example, even though the factories closed down and stopped manufacturing cars, people started growing their own cabbages and vegetables on city lots. They got used to the new conditions and adapted to them. So, why do you say there’s a crisis?

My Answer: People are feeling a false sense of calmness, which has been “manufactured” in agreement with the banks and other systems. It’s all being done to save President Obama’s image, since he just came to power. The current crisis is being masked by artificial means, but it won’t take long for the next crisis to unfold.

What does it really mean that people have gotten used to the situation and are growing vegetables now? The news will even tell you that the President’s wife is growing vegetables at the White House. All of this is clever and deceitful advertising, leading us to believe that everything is getting back to normal. However, the reality is that nothing can be done about the crisis and no one knows how to stop it. The only thing people can do about it is to hush it up for the time being.

And this is what is being done: more money is being printed and the national debt is increasing. But the people in power cannot go on like this for very long. People will soon see the truth and will realize that we haven’t even entered the real crisis yet. All that has happened thus far is not the real crisis yet; it is still ahead of us. So far, our problems have been mere bubbles created by the financial industry, which continue to grow bigger and bigger.

The only thing to do is to let the events unfold gradually, and to lower our standard of living little by little in an effort to prevent the crisis from hitting us abruptly, as a sudden, terrible blow that will bring about war and destruction. People can get used to anything: for example, they can get used to working just once a week and earning a quarter of their past salaries. What should not happen is being thwarted with one powerful blow, and instead to ease down slowly. There is no one who knows how to how to avoid the coming fall entirely. It is clear to everyone that the measures being taken at present are like a feast during a plague, and that eventually, we will have to pay for everything.

The fact is that corporations are not producing anything and the layoffs are continuing. Everything’s going downhill. Yet, we are still seeing a picture of prosperity, like a display window at a shop that looks as attractive as usual, or even more so. Yet, inside the shop, all the products have expired long ago. People can’t put enough food on the table with what they make, and everything is dependent on the growing debt.

A question I received: If the world reaches a point where everyone will have the average living standard and no one will live beyond this standard, then what will drive people to develop further? What will cause people to move forward in their development?

My Answer: If a person feels pleasure from bestowing to others, if he feels that by uniting with others they create a single vessel, inside of which he senses the Upper Force (the Creator), then the ever-increasing attainment of the Creator that he feels will be his goal and reward. When a person builds the “human” level within by bestowing to others, he corrects his attitude toward them, and this makes him similar to the Creator. Thus, he ascends along 125 spiritual steps to the Final Correction.

When he ascends spiritually, he feels satisfaction and fulfillment, and thus comes closer to the Creator. The fulfillment he feels from this is perfect. It is not temporary and transient, but eternal. It fulfills a person completely, leaving no voids. Moreover, one continuously gains new possibilities for even greater types of fulfillment.